


Sail On

by neferlemon



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, One Piece!AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 14:54:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6333451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neferlemon/pseuds/neferlemon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kim Sunggyu has a dream, to be the Pirate King with the Best Vocal in the world and find the lost treasure called Daesang that was said to be hidden by the God of Pirates Seo Taiji before his execution. But first, he has to find a pirate crew of his own and a ship. Follow his adventure into the New World. One Piece!AU</p>
<p>(Or my attempt to stuff INFINITE and K-pop in general to the One Piece Universe).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Before the Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> At first I made this account to comment on my favorite fic here, but then I got this idea and why not post it? I originally want this to be rather crack-ish but it turned out a bit dramatic instead. The 1st chapter is a little bit slow and only shows Sunggyu, but don't worry, members will come out from next chapter. Please enjoy :D
> 
> (Also, excuse me for lame phrases like Pirate King with the Best Vocal or King of Singer Pirate)

_Just breathe in_

_Breathe out_

_Your dreams_

_With me_

**Nell – Ocean of Light**

-

Rock music blasted from a small yet cozy tavern called Epik High in East Blue. The night was just started and people inside were already getting into the mood: ordering more and more booze, increasing more and more money for gambling, some even checking few sexy chicks drinking on the bar. But, mostly they were admiring the band that is currently playing.

“That’s the power of Nell,” Tablo said as he serves some whiskey on the bar, observing the crowds that were twice as usual.

“I don’t even know how they obtain information that Nell’s landed here today,” Mithra murmured beside him, cleaning glassess and plates. Tablo and Mithra Jin were the owner of Epik High. They were friends since childhood and had been living in the Dawn Village since they were born. When they were grown up, they opened Epik High. It had been more than 10 years since.

“Never forget the power of fandom,” Tablo answered as he reached for more whiskey in the crate and find none. Today’s crowd were wild because of Nell. Tablo and Mithra were friend with them since teenager due to mutual interest toward music. When they were adult, though, they split way. Tablo and Mithra opened a tavern while occassionaly performing hip hop music. Nell decided to sail and pursued rock music while being a pirate. Occassionally, when he was tired from his adventure he’d back for several days in Dawn Village and visited their tavern.

Tablo went to find more booze from the storage. He stopped his walking when he saw a 13 years old boy standing still in front of the band, admiring them without blinking. His eyes shined bright with adoration. Annoyed, Tablo smacked the boy on the head.

“Ouch! Hyung!” the boy protested. He turned around and touched his head.

“Get back to work!” Tablo scolded.

“After this,” the boy ignored him and returned his attention to Nell.

“Yah, Kim Sunggyu! Do your job or find another place to sleep tonight,” he threatened the boy. The boy pouted.

Kim Sunggyu was Tablo’s neighbor. His parent’s house was next to Epik High. He was only 3 years old when Tablo met him. On his 4th birthday, his parents died, leaving Sunggyu orphaned. Tablo and Mithra took him since then, raised him on their small house behind Epik High. Sunggyu shows tremendeous vocal talent since 3 years old in the form of very loud and clear crying that could last for hours and that was one of the reason Tablo interested in him. He would make a very good hip hop artist. Except Sunggyu betrayed him by preferring genre rock instead and had been following Nell since he met them.

After the performance, the tavern got very much quieter. It was past midnight. There were only less than 10 people left, so Tablo and Mithra gave themselves a break and joined Nell and Sunggyu who were already sat on one of the table.

“Tell me again about that Daesang, Hyung!” Sunggyu begged. “How does it look like?”

“I don’t know, Sunggyu-yah. I’ve never found it. That’s why I’ll sail again tomorrow morning and this time I’ll find it. Then I’ll bring it back home and you can see it yourself,” Jongwan, Nell’s vocalist, answered him patiently.

“You said the God of Singer Pirates, Seo Taiji himself confirm that this Daesang exist?” Sunggyu asked again. Full of curiousity.

“He did tell me that before he was executed by Marines. That was when I was still in his crew and hasn’t officially made Nell.”

“You were once Seo Taiji’s crew?!” Sunggyu’s eyes became huge. “Hyung, let me join your crew, please! I’ll do your errand and chores but I want to be with you when you find that Daesang! Just like you and Seo Taiji!”

All the adults around him laugh. This is not the first time Sunggyu made the request and Jongwan wouldn’t make this into the last.

“You’re still too young, Sunggyu-yah. Wait for some more years, okay? The sea is a dangerous place. Pirates are everywhere and Marines can mess up your future really well,” he said. The other Nell personnel, Jaekyong, Junghoon, and Jaewon nodded.

“I can fight, Hyung. I’ve learned Taekwondo and boxing too,” Sunggyu pulled his armsleeves to show some nonexistent muscles but his hyungs just laugh again. Sunggyu face fell.

“Just let me go. Tablo Hyung and Mithra Hyung keep forcing me to do hip hop,” he tattled to Jongwan, asking for sympathy. Jongwan’s eyes shined amusedly.

“Don’t you dare,” he hissed playfully. “Sunggyu has perfect voice for rock. He hits high notes so well. He should be a vocalist, not a rapper.”

“Well, he can be whatever he wants to be, but I can’t teach him vocal. Mithra can’t either. We only know hip hop,” Tablo excused himself.

“What do you want to be, Sunggyu-yah?” Jongwan asked him.

“A rock band vocalist like you!” Sunggyu answered immediately.

“Really? Is that your dream?”

“Yes,” Sunggyu answered enthusiastically. “What’s yours, Hyung?”

“You already know. I want to be the Pirate King and find that Daesang, the lost treasure that the late God of Singer Pirate, Seo Taiji, said is hidden in another part of this world.”

“What a cool dream!” Sunggyu shouts and the rest of them laughed again.

That was a nice night, with nice conversation between old friends, until suddenly the door is blasted open. Tablo and Mithra immediately stood up. Living in such lowly neighborhood made them aware that this is one of the usual bandits who loved to come into tavern and scared the owner to give them free booze. Except, usually bandits avoid Epik High because Tablo and Mithra were the strongest in this Dawn Village.

The one who strolled inside was not the usual bandits, though. Actually, neither Tablo, Mithra, or Sunggyu as locals recognized this man whose face covered with black beard all over. Even when he didn’t make any demand yet, they could feel his charisma. Sunggyu swallowed thickly, he could sense that this man is dangerous. Even Jongwan Hyung and the rest of Nell stood up as well.

“Can we help you, Sir?” asked Tablo careful.

“Heard there are pirates here,” the bandit replied with condescending smirk. “No wonder this place stinks so much.”

Sunggyu’s anger rised, “You bastard!”

Tablo hit him on the head.

“Can we help you, Sir? If not, then you can help us by stepping out. We’re out of drinks anyway, today was particularly crowded,” Mithra tried to negotiate.

“I see you’re drinking some right now. Why don’t you share?” the black bearded bandits said.

Jongwan smirked. “Come here, then, Mister. You can have mine,” he threw his bottle to the bandit’s foot. The bandit took it, examined it, and then smashed it to Jongwan’s head.

“Heard that you pirates think you’re better than us bandits,” he said.”All you can do is running away on ships, but you’re nothing on land, you know that?”

Sunggyu was about to jump to the bandits but Tablo and Mithra held him down. Jongwan didn’t even blink.

“Well, if you decline my intention of sharing....” he shrugged. “Just go away.”

The bandits left after several more insults. Sunggyu shouted to Jongwan. “How could you say nothing, Hyung? He shitted on you! You should be braver and took them head on, not like you can’t fight them, right?”

Jongwan didn’t answer, just smiling weirdly. “Are you drunk right now?” Sunggyu demanded. “Fine, I’ll settle the matter with them for you! Hopefully then I’ve proven that I qualify to join your crew!”

Sunggyu ran outside as fast as possible. Neither Tablo, Mithra, nor Nell were fast enough to hold him. Outside, he saw the retreating back of the bandits and shouted.

“About that smell you talked about, you know what? It’s your ass that stinks and you just never realize it before because you’ve never been under an actual roof, you homeless thugs!”

Without knowing anything, Sunggyu felt his body is thrown back into the tavern. Jongwan Hyung’s face comes. Then flashes of red and black and shouts. His head felt like hammered with a chair and the next thing he knows is dark.

-

Sunggyu wokes from a nightmare and sat up. His head hurt like crap. He felt his head with his hand and found it bandaged, and he realized that wasn’t a nightmare at all. He was on the sofa in their living room, alone. He quickly discarded his blanket and ran to the only bedroom in the house.

The adults were there: Tablo, Mithra, and the rest of Nell hyungs. They were scattered around the bed, were wounded and strached in many places. That was quite a fight, Sunggyu thought, until he found the person he’s looking for. Jongwan Hyung was lying on the bed, he was awake and talked to Tablo. But Sunggyu was shocked to see a white bandage wrapped around Jongwan’s neck.

“Hyung,” he called. The rest of the people averted their eyes to Sunggyu.

“Sunggyu-yah, is your head okay? How do you feel?” Mithra asked but Sunggyu ignored him. He went to the bed, to his Jongwan Hyung.

“Hyung, are you okay?” he asked, full of worry. Jongwan just smiled and it broke Sunggyu’s heart more than anything. He climbed into the bed. “Hyung, answer me!” he demanded. “I’ll hate you if you don’t. Are you okay?” he acted like a brat but he didn’t care. He needed Jongwan to talk to him.

“Sunggyu-yah...” Tablo put his hand on Sunggyu’s shoulder. “Let him rest.”

He turned to Tablo, “Why won’t Hyung answer me?” Sunggyu’s voice was desperate, his eyes were blurry. Jongwan was lying in bed with bandages around his throat and he just fucking smiled.

“He can’t answer you, Sunggyu-yah,” Tablo said.

“When will he can?” the hope in Sunggyu’s voice sounds pathetic in his own ears.

“I don’t think he can talk ever again,” Tablo said. “His voice chord is damaged. It’s actually lucky that they missed the artery.”

“But, but,” Sunggyu clutches Tablo’s hand hard. “He still can sing, right? He can sing?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Tablo answered. Not cold, just honest. “If he can’t talk, how can he sing?”

Sunggyu’s tears flooded and soon he sobbed hard on Jongwan’s chest. His Jongwan Hyung won’t ever talk again. Won’t ever sing again. And it was just several hours before he told him about his dream to be the King of Singer Pirate. And what made it even worse, he was hurt because of Sunggyu. If Sunggyu would just shut up yesterday, maybe this didn’t have to happen.

Jongwan sat up and gathered Sunggyu into his embrace. He rubbed Sunggyu’s back, comforted him without any sound. He wiped Sunggyu’s tears and forced Sunggyu to look at him. Sunggyu could only guess what that eyes mean, but he didn’t see any regret or anger in those eyes.

Jongwan took his hand and wrote something on his palm with his finger. It took several times of repeating before Sunggyu catch it. It was a horizontal number eight.

“What’s this?” he asked. Stupid of him, because Jongwan couldn’t tell him the answer anyway. Jongwan drew that once again then closed Sunggyu’s hand and held them with his own hand.

“I don’t know what is this yet,” Sunggyu said. “But if you want me to keep it, I’ll keep it.” Jongwan nodded, satisfied. Then he hugged Sunggyu some more until he felt asleep.

-

When he woke up again, he was alone on the bed. No Tablo, no Mithra, no Nell. No Jongwan Hyung. He glanced to the window and it was still dark. Where’s everybody? Sunggyu jumped from the bed and from the window he could see Nell and his pirate crew were boarding their ship. He quickly ran there.

“Are you going?” he asked as the crew started boarding.

Jaewon Hyung was the last Nell crew to enter, and he retreated his step to look at Sunggyu. “Yes, we’re going before the dawn,” he said.

“Where?”

“To the sea, of course,” he said. He was silent for a while and then he asked something unexpected, “Do you want to join us, Sunggyu?”

Sunggyu looked at him, surprised. He would love to. He was ready for it. But he glanced upward, and Jongwan Hyung was there with Jaekyong and Junghoon, smiled warmly as usual, white fabric around his neck.

“I...” he murmured. “I will be a pirate.”

“What is that, Sunggyu? I didn’t hear,” said Jaewon. Sunggyu inhaled a lot of air and shouted on top of his lungs toward the deck.

“I WILL BE A PIRATE!” he shouted. “One day, when I am much more mature and stronger than I am today, I will follow you into the ocean, Hyung! I will sing with my best effort and I’ll be the Singer Pirate King for you!” Sunggyu’s eyes were blurry again but he could see Jongwan Hyung raised his thumb and smiled.

Sunggyu dropped to his knees. “I’m sorry that you lost your dream because of me, but I’ll vow to myself that I will get it for you, Hyung.”

Jaewon Hyung patted his head and climbed into the ship. Soon after the ship sailed. Sunggyu didn’t move from his position long after the ship vanished from their view.

==

_8 years later_

“Do you have to go at this hour?!” Tablo complained as he follow Sunggyu to the seashore. Mithra trailed not far behind them.

“Jaewon Hyung told me pirates always go before the dawn,” Sunggyu walked confidently.

“That’s stupid of him,” Tablo said. “The sea breeze will push your ship back to the shore if you go at this hour.”

“That’s exactly why, Hyung. If a pirate couldn’t sail past sea breeze then maybe he should stay on land,” said Sunggyu. They arrived at the seashore. A raft was tied to a post.

“Do you have enough supplies?” Mithra asked. “Enough food? Enough clothes?”

“Heh, a pirate don’t bring those things from home, Hyung. He obtains them from the sea.”

“Do you really have to go, Sunggyu-yah?” Tablo asked. His usual hard tones softened.

“I have to go, Hyung. I have a dream that I have to fulfill.”

They were silent for some time. Sunggyu noticed the worry in both of Tablo and Mithra’s eyes, but he also could see trust inside them and it was enough supply for Sunggyu’s whole journey to the New World.

“I’ll miss you,” he finally said and hug both of his parents-figure who adopted him as brother since he was orphaned 17 years ago.

“Be safe,” he heard Mithra Hyung said.

“Come back again, okay?” Tablo made him promised.

“When I came back as Pirate King with The Best Vocal, Hyung, I’ll let you rap in one of my song,” he said, smirked.

Tablo winced in disgust hearing that cheesy title. “Is that how you’d call yourself if you successfully be a pirate king?”

“Anyway, do me one more favor, Hyung. Tablo Hyung, just marry Hyejeong Noona already. Mithra Hyung, you too, with Dahyun Noona. When I come back later, I expect to have at least 4 nephews or niece, okay?”

His hyungs hit him again for teasing them, but when Sunggyu pulled the rope and pushed his raft into the sea, and when he finally sailed, they stayed on the seashore until they couldn’t be seen again.

-

His journey has started.


	2. Aren't You Going Somewhere?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunggyu wants a chef in his crew, so he goes to Baratree, a floating restaurant. He meets a greasy chef who flirts even with a wrinkly cat and his name is Nam Woohyun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For reference to how hot Woohyun will look like when he fight without his hands, see Infinite's Last Romeo dance practice where he kept one of his hand tucked on his pants because of injury.
> 
> For those who's not familiar with One Piece, Devil Fruit is a special fruit who can give the eater a special ability, for example Ice Ice Fruit can give you ability to freeze water. But, the sea hates Devil Fruit and whoever eats them will lose his/her ability to swim on the sea.

When Sunggyu woke up from his nap, he thought it was already around 2PM, judging from the sun’s position. He stretched contentedly because that was a very nice, long nap. It was perfect. Nice weather, nice wave, except the last time he ate was yesterday’s dinner, so now he had a grumbling stomach.

“Ah. Where can I find food?” he murmured to himself and rolled his body. And then, the next thing he knew he was faced with a creature. He jumped and cursed. The creature was small and very wrinkly. It looked like a cat. A very wet cat with wrinkly skin.

“Shoo!” Sunggyu tried to scare the creature but that thing remained silent. And then, when Sunggyu tried to touched it with his toe, it freaking spoke.

“Hello, nice raft you have,” the cat greeted. Sunggyu couldn’t believe his ears.

“Did you just spoke to me?”

“Are you deaf?” the cat sent him dirty look. Sunggyu was confused, and not really happy. This cat was rude, like any other cat in the world. But is it even a cat?

“I’m sorry but what are you?"

“How rude,” the cat said. “I’am a sea cat. You think only dog have a sea-related relatives?”

“Err,” Sunggyu honestly didn’t know what to reply.

“My name’s Jureumi and I thought you could have some help.”

“... What’s that?”

“You look like you’re hungry. I know the best restaurant around here. You can take us there.”

The cat was bossy. Sunggyu didn't like bossy but he responded anyway. “Restaurant? No, I’m not going back to land. I need to go to New World to be a Pirate King.”

“Who says we’re going back to land? No, Baratree is a floating restaurant, the best one even. Bring me there and I’ll excuse your rudeness.”

“What’s floating restaurant?”

“It’s basically restaurant on a ship.”

“That’s good, because I also need to recruit a chef for my pirate crew,” Sunggyu said after a pause.

“You come to the right place, then. Trust me. They’re really notorious, not only in cooking but also in fighting. They’re the best.”

Sunggyu eyed Jureumi suspiciously. The cat was really ugly, and rude, but Sunggyu didn’t know ho to get rid of him. He tried several times to push that cat into the sea while he was sleeping, but for such a small thing, he sure is heavy.

But he could use some company right now, he’d think about Jureumi again after eating.

-

“That’s it!” Jureumi pointed his paw excitedly to a floating ship. Sunggyu squinted his eyes.

“Ew,” he said. “I take back what I said about taking one of them to be my crew. I don’t trust someone who painted his whole ship with pink and decorated it with hearts.”

“Come on, don’t be judgy!” Jureumi scolded him. “Even if the decoration was bad, the food and the service is really good.”

When they were near the restaurant, Sunggyu could see that it was big. There were several smaller ships around the entrance, parked and secured with a rope to the restaurant’s wall. He followed Jureumi who hopped onto the restaurant’s boat and tied his raft.  
Up close, the restaurant wasn’t that worse. It was still pink and full of heart-polkadot but the smell emanating from inside was heavenly. The entered and a waiter dressed in formal waiter uniform greeted them.

“Welcome to Baratree. Two seats, Sir?” he asked. “Yes, please,” Sunggyu answered.

The restaurant was full and they got a table near the kitchen (Jureumi was even given pillows on his chair so he can reach his plate on the table). The waiter gave them a menu.

“Today we have a special from the chef, braised hairtail in red wine and clam soup alla Southern Island. Which one would you prefer?”

“Both,” Jureumi said haughtily to the waiter. “And I want them to be served by Chef Nam himself.”

“Coming right away, Sir.”

Their appetizer was served by a truly handsome young man with a distracting lips and perfectly sculpted sharp nose.

“Chef Nam!” Jureumi squealed (Sunggyu winced). “Long time no see.”

“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Jureumi,” the man flashed a gorgeous smile. “So you’ve managed to seduce another man to bring you here. Who is it this time?”

Sunggyu was irritated because the young man was so attractive.

“Oh yes, this is Sunggyu. Sunggyu, this is Nam Woohyun, the head chef of Baratree.”

“Nice to meet you, handsome. Is it your first time here?” he greeted and Sunggyu spluttered. That was indecent! He was a customer! He was about to protest when the head chef made a heart shape with both of his hand and sent them away to him.

“So... do you know what’s on our menu today?” the chef asks.

“Something about clam soup and hairtail?” Sunggyu replied, unsure.

“Actually, gorgeous, there was only me and you on the menu today? You get it? Me n u!”

That was such a bad joke and Sunggyu threw him his best-judging-look. But the main course was the best thing Sunggyu ever tasted in his life. His bad mood was immediately vanished and he was even feeling thankful to Jureumi for bringing him here. He asked for a bill.

And suddenly the food wasn’t that delicious.

“You charged 500 belly for a bowl of clam soup?” he glared to the waiter (this time it’s not Woohyun).

“For a special clam soup in which the clams were imported from South Blue with the fastest delivery available to ensure its freshness, yes,” the waiter answered, raising his eyebrows. Sunggyu gulped, because right now he only had 300 belly. Maybe 340 belly if he tried really hard to find more in his wallet.

“Well, then,” he smiled. “This Mr. Jureumi will pay.”

Jureumi hissed angrily. “I’m a cat! Do I look like I carry money?”

“You brought me here!”

“Well, I’m still a cat!”

“Shit,” Sunggyu said. “Then what can I do,” he laughed sheepishly to the waiter, and then ran as fast as possible to the door. Then all of a sudden, a leg sent him stumbled into the floor, face first. He looked up to see Woohyun frowned deliciously smugly, one leg stretched out casually while on one hand he still hold a serving tray perfectly upright.

“We don’t appreciate eat-and-dash customer here,” he said.

“Well, I’m sorry,” Sunggyu said. “But I really don’t have any money to pay. That evil cat brought me here, I thought he was paying!”

“He’s a cat!” Woohyun deadpanned. “You wouldn’t think he would pay, would you?”

“Well, he can talk! I figured he can pay also!” Sunggyu defended himself. People around them heard him and laughed. This pissed Sunggyu more. The more embarrassed he was, the more angry he got. He attacked Woohyun with a kick from his Taekwondo move, but Woohyun nimbly dodged it and kicked back. Hey, this man was good at fighting. And he did it without using his hand (still holding the serving tray upright). Sunggyu was interested, so he sent more kicks and blows. Woohyun elegantly avoided him and there was something that charmed Sunggyu about this boy.

“Say,” Sunggyu said. “Would you like to join my pirate crew as a chef?”

“What?” Woohyun jawdropped. As well as some staffs who heard them. “Hell, no way!”

“Why?” Sunggyu pouted. “I’ll even excuse your heart throwing and cheesy line!”

“I’m a chef, not a pirate,” Woohyun said. “You’re handsome but no, I’m not interested in sailing.”

Several minutes later Sunggyu found himself in the kitchen, in front of Nam Boohyun, the Baratree manager that is also Woohyun’s older brother. They look alike, except Woohyun was a little bit more handsome and Boohyun didn’t have right hand. His right arm had nothing after his elbow ended.

“We do have people like you from time to time,” Boohyun said sternly. “So we are prepared with punishment. Take him to the deck and show him the shrimps and the new batch of fishes, he must clean them up before night today.”

Sunggyu was ready to curse at Jureumi.

“And I heard you asked Woohyun to join your pirate crew?” Boohyun asked. The chef assistants who were busy cooking looked at him and laughed.

“He can’t,” one of them said.

“Why?” Sunggyu asked.

“He’s a fruit eater, you know. He ate Greasy-Greasy Fruit when he was young. That’s why he couldn’t swim. You don’t want a crew that can’t swim when you will sail on the sea, do you?”

Sunggyu didn’t get to answer when Woohyun came with Jureumi in arm.

“Let me show you your work,” he said while leaving Jureumi on the kitchen counter.

“Wait, the cat doesn’t join us?”

“You’re not expecting him to clean shrimps and fishes, are you?” Woohyun asked.

“Well, he’s the one that created this mess.”

“On the contrary, Mr. Jureumi is our loyal customer who always brought rich, new, potential big customer every once in a while. It would be disrespectful for us to make him do such lowly work,” Woohyun sent a wink and a heart finger to Jureumi who purred happily. Sunggyu was about to puke. Maybe he could do without Woohyun. He could find another chef.

-

Before they could get to the deck, there was commotion on the restaurant. The people in the kitchen quickly went to check what happened. Sunggyu was also curious, so he peeked and saw a beggar made his way into the restaurant. The customers were visibly disturbed, they covered their nose and mouth with hand while throwing dirty looks at the beggar. Sunggyu looked at them with distaste. These rich people were always like that.

“Hongbin’s here again,” a staff said.

“Hongbin?” Sunggyu asked. “That’s the beggar’s name?”

“He’s no beggar,” an assistant chef said. “He’s from a pirate crew, VIXX. But he hates that crew and from time to time he runs away and makes himself looks like a beggar like that. When he’s at his wit’s end, he always come here looking for food.”

“And you gave him food for free? You didn’t even make him work!” Sunggyu accused.

“Oh, hush!” another restaurant staff said. “He suffered so much. Let him be. Just go to the deck, I’ve put the shrimps and fishes there. Better start now if you want to finish before nightfall.”

Sunggyu thumped his head to the wall because he found this situation was really unfair. The restaurant apparently play favorites!

-

“Eat this,” Woohyun shoved a plate of rice in front of the battered Hongbin. He had pulled the young man into the back deck. “Stop coming here. Your crew will turn this place upside down again if they found out.”

Hongbin grabbed the plate and started eating greedily. “This is the only place I can come when I’m hungry.”

“How many days have you been on the run? You’re awfully smelly.”

“Around two weeks. I was surprised they haven’t found me already this time. I think they let me loose on purpose because they can take me again anytime,” he said bitterly.

“If you don’t like to be a pirate with them, just say so.”

“It’s not that easy. They won’t let me go. Once you’re a member of a pirate crew, you will serve them until you die.”

“But still, it’s been 10 years since the first time you ran away from them, only to be taken again, and you’d run again, came to me for food again, taken again. You should step up your game,” Woohyun said.

“I will, this time,” Hongbin said.

“Keep your promise. Next time you came here begging for food, I won’t give you any.”

“As if you could deny a starving man from food,” Hongbin scoffed.

“True,” Woohyun said as he went back inside. “Go quickly after you finish the meal!”

-

Sunggyu was still crouched on the floor, cleaning mountains of shrimps and fish absentmindedly while he thought about the conversation he overheard between Woohyun and Hongbin. The handsome chef apparently had a soft, kind side that he didn’t show Sunggyu. He’d been feeding that beggar of a pirate for 10 years already?

Someone came and he jerked from his thought. It was Boohyun.

“Sunggyu-yah, can I ask you a favor?” he asked.

“You already did,” Sunggyu answered dryly, gesturing to the shrimps and fishes. Boohyun laughed.

“That’s not my favor, that’s your punishment. But really, can you take Woohyun with you?”

“Ew, no,” he said. “He cooks real good but I can’t stand his greasiness. He flirted with Jureumi, who is a wrinkly, old, wrinkly, evil cat. Did I mention he is wrinkly?”

“You don’t have to be jealous about it. It was partly side effect of Greasy Greasy Fruit. But he just... he wants to find All Blue, you know.”

“What’s All Blue?”

“It’s a mythical sea. It’s said that in there, fish from North, South, East, and West Blue gather. It was like a heaven of fresh sea ingredients. He was obsessed with it since he read about it when he’s 7 or so. He wouldn’t shut up even though people called him stupid and deluded for that. By 10, he was ready to go on an adventure. He prepared a raft, like yours today. He was really determined to go.”

“I see that determination still keeps him here, though?”

Boohyun smiled sadly. “Something happened the night before he depart. Our parents at that time was the head chef. They coaxed Woohyun not to go and Woohyun only agreed if they let him cook for the restaurant that night. Woohyun had this... insecurity about his own cooking ability, and our parents not letting him help much in the kitchen made him even more insecure, although it’s mostly he’s not allowed because he’s still a child.

“That night, our parents allowed him to cook. Except, he was just too excited, or too nervous, to cook the food right. The chicken noodle he made was too salty and too bloated. There were huge customer uproar, one of them was Marines’ high ranked official and he made a scene, even took his plate back to the kitchen and poured the rest of his noodle back to the pot.

“But that was not the worse. Somehow... accident happened. I don’t know how or why, but the chicken noodle was suddenly contaminated with poison. What poison... I didn’t know either. After we served dinner, we ate the leftover together as usual and that was when the poison kicked in. Many staffs were sick, some dead, including our parents. As for me... I’m lucky because the poison only attacked my right hand,” he rised his amputated right hand.

“Woohyun thought it was his fault. He thought, maybe he put bad ingredients without knowing. Or he mistakenly combine ingredients without knowing they could result as poison. Either way, he abandoned his raft and worked really hard to recover this restaurant’s name. He never mentioned All Blue ever again. But when he met you today, I think I saw the spark of his forgotten dream.

“So, please Sunggyu-yah. Take him,” Boohyun ended his story.

Sunggyu was still lost when they heard a muffled voice. Hongbin, the battered beggar, was apparently eavesdropping on Boohyun’s story.

“It was my hyung’s fault,” he gasped. “But he didn’t mean it, you know? It was just that damn Marine tried really hard to catch us. Hyung wants to kill him, but that Marine messed everything up,” he coughed so hard and Sunggyu saw some blood spilled from his mouth.

“Hongbin-ah, why are you like this? Are you sick?” Boohyun came to him.

“I don’t want to be a pirate anymore,” he cried, half in pain, half in misery. “I tried to tell my Hyung that but they wan’t listen. This is the only way out.”

“Did you... did you just poison yourself?” Boohyun panicked. “Sunggyu-yah, help me to make him throw up!”

“It’s too late,” Hongbin smiled. “Tell Woohyun Hyung that it’s not his fault. And thank him for feeding me this whole 10 years.”

“Hongbin-ah! Wake up! Yah, Hongbin-ah!” Boohyun shook the limp body in his hand but they boy was right. It was too late.

A big bird flew over them.

“Shit,” Boohyun said. “That bird gonna report this to VIXX leader.”

“What happened?” Woohyun came to the deck, hearing Boohyun’s panicked voice. He saw Hongbin’s body and his eyes widened in disbelief.

At the same time, a loud bang was heard from the restaurant.

-

VIXX had a ship that was twice of Baratree. Their jolly roger was a voodoo doll with word VIXX embedded below it. The parked their ship opposite of Baratree’s entrance as N and Leo, the captain and the vice captain, made their way to the restaurant. They rushed into the deck where Hongbin’s body lied and, his eyes showed no mercy when he looked at Sunggyu, Woohyun, and Boohyun. Sunggyu didn’t blame him, actually.

“You killed Hongbin,” N said with cold voice. “You poisoned his food.”

Woohyun looked hurt and Sunggyu winced.

“What are you saying,” a voice meddled. Boohyun. “That’s something Woohyun would never do, as a chef.”

The five members of VIXX laughed. “He did it 10 years ago, though? To his own parents, remember?”

“That was not him,” Boohyun hissed.

“Of course it was him. He was the one cooking that night. I still remember that terrible taste of chicken noodle. I thought Baratree was a goner if their second generation can’t cook for shit,” Leo said. And Sunggyu suddenly catched some important detail.

“Wait, you were there that night?”

“Who are you, hamster boy?” asked N. Sunggyu was too startled with his finding to care about his insult.

“I’m Kim Sunggyu, and I’ll be The Pirate King with The Best Vocal,” he answered. VIXX laughed heartily.

“It’s not Woohyun, then,” Sunggyu continued. “What Hongbin said before, it made sense. You were the one who put the poison.”

The VIXXs stopped laughing. Their leader, N, looked at Sunggyu. “What do you mean?”

“That night, when the poisoning happened. You were trying to kill that Marine. You actually put a poison already on his serving, but you didn’t expect that Marine to be so angry about the food and dump them back into the pot. That’s why none of the customer got poisoned, but only the staffs who ate them as leftover after the Marine dumped his food back.”

There was a change in the ambience of the room after Sunggyu stated his deduction. N and Leo became tense. Woohyun and Boohyun had their jaw dropped, eyes widened in disbelief. The rest of Baratree staffs were in the same condition.

“Well, what does it matter if we did?” Leo asked. “His parents are still dead.”

“It matters, you dumb voodoo dolls! He’s been suffering in guilt for 10 years now. He can’t even bring himself to pursue his dream!” Sunggyu shouted. He was pissed.

“Dream? A murderer doesn’t have a right to dream.”

“He is no murderer!”

“Still, if he hadn’t made the food that nigh that bad, the Marine would die instead of his parents, right? And he killed Hongbin tonight.”

“Hongbin committed suicide. He ate that same poison you use 10 years ago because you won’t let him out from your crew,” Sunggyu spat.

“Suicide, you say? What a rude lie,” N’s gaze was cold.

“Attack,” he commanded.

-

A full blown war had started.

The VIXX crews was dispatched from their ship. They invaded Baratree from every side. The customers immediately left, sensing danger. The Baratree staffs were no weakling and started to defend their restaurant. They will be fine, Sunggyu thought. The dangerous ones were the captain and vice captain. N and Leo. Sunggyu had heard about them before, some Epik High visitors told him about strong pirates who wear gothics that was currently gaining Marines’ attention.  
VIXX was strong and honestly Sunggyu would rather make peace with them rather than spent some energy. But he saw Woohyun’s eyes and it painfully reminded him of Jongwan Hyung’s eyes that night after his throat sliced. It was the eyes of someone whose dream has left. It left a deep scar to Sunggyu that he’s the one who caused it and he still hates himself for it, even until now. And this VIXX pirates who stole Woohyun’s dream, Sunggyu would not hate them any less.

Leo landed on the restaurant and attacked Woohyun with a massive chain, but Sunggyu intercepted and kicked him with his Taekwondo techniques instead. Leo sprawled on the floor, but soon got up and flung his chain again. Damn, that chain was heavy as fuck! Yet Sunggyu able to dogded most of them and successfully got close to him, he landed a hard blow to Leo’s jaw. He’d let Woohyun fight the leader N, since he deserved it.

“You shouldn’t disturb the main character in this war,” Sunggyu said to Leo. “I’ll play with you instead.”

Leo kicked him on the stomach but Sunggyu blocked it. He prepared a technique he made himself, a combination of boxing and Taekwondo called 60 Seconds, because that’s the amount of time he’ll need before his enemy down. Meanwhile, he sneaked to see Woohyun’s fight and kinda forgot his own battle.

Woohyun had both hand shoved into his pants pocket. He fight with his foot only – apparently to protect his hand from possible damage. Hands are assets to a chef, and Sunggyu knew Woohyun loves his hand, if the amount of hand cream bottles he found on the trash bin before was any indicator. Despite that, Woohyun’s fight was fierce. It was mesmerizing, and hot to boot. Sunggyu never knew he appreciates legs that much. But Woohyun’s legs were flying everywhere, from N’s shin to stomach to chest to face, on impressive speed. N himself wasn’t weak and for every kick he received from Woohyun, he threw fist on Woohyun’s body.

He could see N was preparing some move, judging from his tightening chest and gleaming eyes. But then he became distracted because Leo sent him crashing to the wall, smashing it into pieces.

“Dammit! 60 Seconds!” Sunggyu released his techniques and he sent Leo into the sea. Meanwhile, N has done preparing himself and put out a... black lipstick?

“Careful!” Jureumi screamed. “That black lipstick was made from Devil Fruit! If he kissbye-ed you, you’re a goner!”

“Sunggyu!” he heard Woohyun called. “Combine your techniques with mine! I saw your 60 Seconds, it will work well with my foot techniques!”

As N put his second and third fingers on his mouth to send them a kiss, Woohyun called, “Time!”

“60 Seconds!” Sunggyu responded. They both charged forward to N and there was big explosion when their feets met their enemy’s lips.

Sunggyu and Woohyun was thrown into Baratree. N was thrown to the sea, along with Leo. They won.

From afar they could see the VIXX crew jumped to the sea to save their captain and vice captain.

But they won.

-

It was twilight and the sun set beautifully on the west, luminating the aftermath of a bloody fight between the Baratree crew and VIXX pirates. Half of the restaurant wall was smashed, pieces of woods floated on the sea around them. Some of the staffs were wounded, the rest were simply tired. They were scattered on the restaurant, but their eyes were shining from the pride of successfully defending this place from the hardest blow they’ve ever received.

Woohyun looked at them from where he sat on the entrance, surveyed the damage they suffer. The restaurant must be closed off for renovation for a while. That was a pity, what would happened to the people who want to eat at Baratree? Woohyun searched for ideas on his mind. Maybe they still could open the restaurant on a raft while they’re renovating?

A raft reminded him of Sunggyu and his offering. To be honest, he would like to join him. After all, he was dying to find All Blue, the legendary sea, and there’s a high chance it will be there in New World, Sunggyu’s destination. There was another reason too, that had less to do with All Blue and more with Sunggyu himself. The boy intrigued him. His voice, his fighting style, and most of all, his determination to protect him and his dream... Woohyun was touched. Nobody defended him for his dream like that before.

But of course he couldn’t left Baratree. Not after the damage he’d done 10 years ago. Not when Boohyun had lost his hand. He had done enough selfishness that night, he was not about to be selfish ever again.

A bag was thrown to his head and Woohyun actually toppled over because damn, it was heavy. He looked up, cursing and about to blow up when he saw that it was Boohyun who threw it.

“Go,” his brother said, and Woohyun could see how hard it was for his brother to say it but he still did.

“No,” Woohyun said. “You need me here.”

“Don’t think too highly of yourself, it will kill you out there,” Boohyun replied.

“Same thing apply to you, Hyung. What are you going to do, cooking and defending this restaurant with half a hand? What if something like today happens again? If something happens again to this restaurant, to you... I can’t afford being selfish. Not anymore,” Woohyun said.

“You silly,” Boohyun crouched and ruffled his hair with his left hand. “I’m okay. I’m your Hyung. I still can kick your ass to the nearest island when you’re misbehaving. I’m not invalid just because I can only use one hand. You know what? I even think I’ll attach a hook here, or a knife, then I can even chop food again.”  
Woohyun hide his tears because he knew where this conversation was going.

“It’s been 10 years, Woohyun-ah. You can stop being guilty. It was not your fault,” Boohyun said. “This Baratree, it is your home, a place where you come back to. It should never be a prison, a place you can’t leave.”

“Hyung....”

“Go. Now,” Boohyun stood up. He faced Sunggyu, who smiled a little sadly. “You can bring him now, drag him if he refuse.”

“I’d prefer my crew to go with his own will, Hyung,” he said. “After all, a dream isn’t for someone who needs to be forced to pursue it.”

Later, Woohyun would say Sunggyu was the cheesy one for using such a cringeworthy sentence. For now, he felt like Sunggyu is calling him to join.

“I’ll go,” he said finally. “Boohyun Hyung, I’ll go.”

Sunggyu grinned. Boohyun smiled. The rest of the staffs who listened to their conversation broke into loud cheers.

“Woohyun-ah, we’ll miss you!”

“Come back here when you’ve found All Blue, okay?”

“Don’t forget not to jump to the sea, you can’t swim!”

“And for God’s sake, don’t flirt with any pirate you meet later, okay?”

“Or with any Marines.”

“Or with that cute guy who’ll be your captain!”

Woohyun gave them a hard glare, but smiled.

“I’ll go after we sorted this mess out.”

“No, you go now, before you change your mind,” Boohyun said. He then threw the bag to Sunggyu, who catched it real nice and jumped to the raft.

“Now?”

“Just go!”

Woohyun followed Sunggyu, who was already sitting on the raft with Jureumi . He threw a last look to his brothers on the restaurant. They were all standing, sending him away with frantic, happy wave. Some of them even got teary eyes, but mostly they smiled.

-

“We totally need a real ship, you know.”

“You’re right, that’s why we’re getting ourself a new ship and a mechanic next.”

They were silent for a while.

“Why did you defend me?” Woohyun asked.

“Your eyes,” Sunggyu said. “It reminded me of someone’s. Someone that I’ve hurt real bad.”

“So, I’m just your excuse to relieve that guilt of yours or something?”

“At first that’s what I thought too. But then I realized you’re different than him. That person... he was not angry with me. He didn’t look regretful. As if he already accepted that I took away something most important for him and let me get away with that. But your eyes, they look angry for some reason and I realized that you haven’t given up your dream. In your eyes I saw hope,” Sunggyu said. He looked at Woohyun with such happy expression that made him blush.

“God, you’re creepy, stop beaming at me. I’m the one who’s supposed to be flirty here.”

“I’m just happy,” Sunggyu answered. “You’re my first mate.”

“What about me?” Jureumi asked dryly.

“You’re my first pet. Now tell us where to get the ship, old cat.”


End file.
